Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-03-12

the world" what humiliation 1t must
have been.
Go tomorrow morning and get into an al
tercation with some wretch crawling up
from gin-cellar in the Fourth Ward, New
York. "No," you say, II would not bemean
myself by getting in such contest" Then
think Of what the King Of Heaven and
Earth endured when He came down and
fought that great wretch Of hell, and fought
him in the wilderness and on the top OF the
Temple. But bless God in that triumph
over temptation Christ gives us the assurance
that we shall also triumph. Having Himself
been tempted He is able to succor all those
who are tempted.
In a violent storm at sea the mate told q
boy-f0r the rigging had become entangled
in the mast-to 60 up and right it. A gentle,,
man standing on the deck said: Don't SEND
that bow I'D, he will be dashed to death. "
The mate said: 81 know what am about
The boy raised his hat in recognition OF tne
order. and then rose, hand over
hand, and went to work; and as ne
swung in the storm the passengers Wrnng
their hands and expected to see MIN IaiL lne
Christian man said to him: "Why did you
go down in the forecastle before you went
,ipg' "Ah," said the boy, 81 went down to
pray. My mother always taught me before
undertook anything great to pray. ~ nat
is that you have in your vestP said tne
man. 20, that is the New Testament" ne
said. ~ thought would carry it with me
If / really did 90 overheard" How well
that boy was protected! | care not how
great the height or how vast the depth, with
Christ within us, and Christ beneath us,
and Christ above us, and Christ all around
us, nothing shall befall us in the way Of
harm. Christ himself having been in the
tempest, will deliver all those who put their
trust in him. Blessed be his glorious name
forever.
The third installment paid for our re-
demption was the Saviour's sham trial. l
rail- il a sham trial--there has never been any
thing so indecent or unfair in the Tombs
Court of New York, as was witnessed at the
trial of Christ. Why, they hustled Him into
the courtroom at two o'clock in the morn
ing. They gave Him no time for counsel
They gave Him no opportunity for subpoena
ing witnesses The ruffiians who were wander
ing around through the midnight, of course
they saw the arrest and went into the court
room. But Jesus's friends were sober men,
were respectable men. and at that hour-two
o'clock in the morniug-of course they were
ut home asleep. Consequently Christ entered
the courtroom with the ruffians.
Oh look at Him. No one to speak word
for Him. lift the lantern until / can look
into His face, and as my heart beats III sym
pathy for this, the best friend the world ever
had Himself now utterly friendless, an
Him in the mouth, and | see the blood steal
ing from gum and lip. Oh it was farce
Of a trial, lasting only perhaps an
hour, and then the judge rises for the SEN
tencel 1t is against the law to give sentence
unless there has been an adjournment OF the
court between condemnation and sentence;
but what cares this judge for the lava THE
man has no friends-let him die, says the
Judge, and the runians outside the rail cry:
hAhal ahal that's what we want
- His blood. Hand him out here to
as. Away with Him! Away with HIM.
Oh bless God, that amid all the injustice,
that may be inflicted upon us in this world
we have divine sympathizer The world
cannot lie about you, nor abuse you as much
as they did Christ, and Jesus stands
today in every court room, in every
home, in every store, and says:
i'Couragel BY all my hours of
maltreatment and abuse, will protect those
who are trampled on" And when Christ
| forgets that two o'clock morning scene, and
the stroke Of the ruffian on the mouth. and
the bowling of the unwashed crowd, then He
will forget you and me in the injusticeS OF
life that may be inflicted upon us.
Some of you want deliverance from your
troubles, God knows you have enough OF
them. Physical troubles; domestic troubles;
spiritual troubles; financial troubles, You
have been gathering them up, some perhaps
for five, or six, or seven years, and you have
divided them into two classes: Those you can
talk about and those you cannot talk about;
and as those griefs are the most grinding
and depressing which you cannot mention
you get coincidence for the things you can
speak of, while you get no coincidence for the
| things that you cannot In your school days
you learned how to bound the States, and
could tell what rivers and lakes and noun
tains ran through them. If you were asked
to-day to bound your worldly estate
you would say it is bounded on the
north by trouble, and on the south
trouble, and on the west by trouble, while
| rivers Of tears and lakes of woe, and noun
tains of disaster run through it. What are
you going to do with your troubless Why do
you not go the theater and have your mind
absorbed in some tragedy. oh" you say,
everything have seen on the boards of the
stage Is tame compared with the tragedy of
! my own life!" Well, then, why do you not
/ 20 to your trunks and closets and
gather up all the mementoes of your
i departed friends and put them
put of sight, and take down their pictures
from the wall and put in the frame harvest
scene or some bright and gay spectacles
''Ah," you say, eff / should remove all these
mementoes Of my departed friends, that
would not take away the killing pictures that
are hanging in the gallery of my own heart !"
Well, if that does not help you. why not
/ plunge into society ana Try TO wash OH IN
worldly gayeties all these ASSIGNMENTS of the
soull 'Oh," you say, 81 have tried thatl
but how can hear other children laugh when
my children are silent1 How can | see other
happy families when my own happy family
is broken up. Trouble, troubled" But do
you gain anything by brooding over your
misfortunes, by sitting down in dark room,
by comparison of the sweet past with the
bitter present. No; that makes things
worse.n But l have to tell you to-day that
the Christ of all sympathy presents Himself.
Is there anybody in this house that can
get along without sympathy! do not think
would live day without it. And yet there
are a great many who seem to get along
without divine sympathy. Their fortune in
the counting-room, or in the store, or in
the insurance company, takes wings and flies
away. They button up penniless pocket
They sit down in penury where once
| they had affluence, and yet there ii
no Jesus TO stand by them and say
ooh, man, there are treasures that never
fail, in banks that never break Twill take
care Of you. Town the cattle on Thousand
hills, and you shall never want" They have
no such divine Saviour to say that to them
l do not know now they get along. DEATH
comes to the nursery. One voice less in tn
household. One less fountain OF joy and
laughter. Two hands less to be busl
all day. Two feet less to bounC
through the hall. Shadow after shadow
following through that household, yet NJ
! Jes11s IN stand there and saw. 81 am the